MUSICALITY OF LYRICAL POETRY: THEORETICAL AND LITERARY ASPECTS OF INTERRELATION BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN ART

The paper looks into the evolution of interconnections between European and Russian art, in which the concept of music of word (verbal music) was most prominent. It can be exemplified by the fact that it was researched in philosophy, aesthetics, philology and was central to poetry of Barocco, Romanticism and Symbolism. At the same time musicality of lyrical poetry has been viewed from absolutely different angles. The author defines theoretical and literary criteria of musicality related to the specifics of the poetic verse as well as the genre specifics of poetry. These methodological principles stem from a number of objective causes as the concept of music has evolved into a dynamic artistic trend. The first comprehensive theory of musical lyrical poetry in Russian poetics was propounded by A. Fet. Later Symbolism put this theory on the philosophical footing, taking it to its most developed form. On top of this, searching for musical expression of poetry brought about an array of studies in the field of poetic theory. Some musical theories of Russian poetry in the 19–20 centuries are relevant in the historic perspective only. Others serve as the basis for further analysis. One of the key premises which remain relevant up to this day is that poetry is an acoustic phenomenon, thus it correlates with the structure of musical art. The analysis of Russian lyrical poetry helps define two types of poetic music: harmonious and disharmonious. The history of Russian poetry proves that the criteria of musicality have evolved naturally including aesthetic and artistic trends, genre specifics, content structure, phonetic, rhythmic and melodic structure, intonation and syntactic structure and composition of poetic verse. These criteria are also applicable to European poetry. The theory of lyrical music in contemporary literary studies as well as in the 19–20 centuries serves in this paper as a foundation for defining musicality from the perspective of literary theory and poetic studies. These criteria help uncover both general approaches to musical lyrical poetry and its specific features, determined by the language, historic trends and ethnic traditions.